NEW YORK, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. (OTC Bulletin Board: ACCP), a biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary drug-delivery platforms to develop treatments in areas of oncology, cancer supportive care and diabetes, announced it has submitted additional patent applications, covering its Cobalamin-mediated oral drug delivery technology formulations of many global top-100 injectable drugs, as a result of the growing interest surrounding the company’s proprietary oral delivery technology. The patents cover oral formulations of leading injectables, like bevacizumab (Avastin®), trastuzumab (Herceptin®),adalimumab (Humira®), etanercept (Enbrel®), insulin glargine (Lantus®), and many others. In addition, Access rebranded its Cobalamin-mediated oral drug delivery technology as CobOral delivery technology.
“The CobOral branding and additional patent filings reflect the high level of interest from partners in our CobOral and CobaCyte drug delivery platforms,” stated Jeffrey B. Davis, President and CEO, Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He continued, “As we continue exploiting our CobOral and CobaCyte technology platforms to yield valuable oral formulations of top-selling injectables, we believe filing these additional patents is critical in maintaining our strong IP position when further executing on our collaboration and partnering strategy.”
Access continues to make significant progress with its proprietary CobOral delivery technology. Access recently signed a pre-licensing agreement with a leading biotechnology company to develop an oral formulation of its currently-marketed, proprietary injectable drug for diabetes. Access initially focused its CobOral product development program on the oral delivery of insulin and human growth hormone (hGH), two peptides which currently can only be given by injection. Since presenting promising results at a major conference in mid-2008, Access has made substantial improvements to the formulation technology. An improved CobOral insulin-containing nanoparticle formulation delivered orally provided a pharmacological response (lowering of blood glucose levels in an animal model of diabetes) equivalent to greater than 80% of that achieved by insulin delivered subcutaneously. This represents a substantial oral bioavailability, indicating that this formulation has potential for clinical development and ultimate commercialization. Adaptation of this technology has provided a CobOral HGH formulation that has demonstrated good efficacy, represented by more than 25% improvement in weight gain, when given orally in an established animal model.
Avastin and Herceptin are registered trademarks of Genentech, Inc. Humira is a registered trademark of Abbott Biotechnology, Ltd. Enbrel is a registered trademark of Immunex Corporation (now Amgen). Lantus is a registered trademark of Sanofi-Aventis.
About Access:
Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an emerging biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes proprietary products for the treatment and supportive care of cancer patients. Access’ products include MuGard (www.MuGard.com), for the management of patients with mucositis, ProLindac, currently in Phase II clinical testing of patients with ovarian cancer, and Thiarabine, a new generation nucleoside analog which has demonstrated both pre-clinical and clinical activity in certain cancers.
The company also has other advanced drug delivery technologies including CobaCyte-mediated targeted delivery and CobOral-oral drug delivery, its proprietary nanopolymer delivery technology based on the natural vitamin B12 uptake mechanism. For additional information on Access Pharmaceuticals, please visit our website at www.accesspharma.com.
This press release contains certain statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include those relating to: our cash burn rate, clinical trial plans and timelines and clinical results for ProLindac, MuGard, Thiarabine and Cobalamin and other product candidates, our ability to achieve clinical and commercial success and our ability to successfully develop marketed products. These statements are subject to numerous risks, including but not limited Access’ need to obtain additional financing in order to continue the clinical trial and operations and to the risks detailed in Access’ Annual Reports on Form 10-K and other reports filed by Access with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact: Company | Contact: Investor Relations | |
Christine Berni | Donald C. Weinberger/Diana Bittner (media) | |
Director of Investor Relations | Wolfe Axelrod Weinberger Assoc. LLC | |
Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | (212) 370-4500 | |
(212) 786-6208 | ||
SOURCE Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
